Car parking charges could rise and councillors could be allocated less money to give to good causes under new cost cutting measures.

Hertsmere Borough Council is facing a reduction in its grant from the government of £307,000 next financial year.

In order to balance its books, the council spent the summer consulting a selection of residents on what services they wished to see protected.

As a result of the survey, the council has proposed to increase prices for on and off street parking.

Off street parking will increase from 50p to 70p for the first hour and on street parking will increase to 50p for the second half hour, while still keeping the first 30 minutes free.

This is expected to bring in £297,000 a year, £50,000 of which would be reinvested in resurfacing car parks.

The council has also proposed to save £19,500 by halving the amount of money councillors can give out to good causes in the area in its Ward Improvement Initiative Scheme, which currently stands at £1000 per councillor per year.

The local authority also proposes to change the way in which members of the public can meet with council officers face to face, which would save £25,000.

The proposals are made in the council’s draft Revenue Budget report, which will be presented to the overview and scrutiny committee on January 27 for consultation.

If passed, they could save the council £348,000.

Speaking about the consultation exercise, Councillor Morris Bright thanked the  Hertsmere residents who took part.

He said: “All local authorities continue to face tough financial decisions and Hertsmere is no exception. This participatory budgeting exercise gave us valuable information about what services the participants want to see protected.

“A clear message from residents is that they want us to continue to support Police Community Support Officers as well as maintaining our green waste and recycling collections throughout the year. We are committed to continuing these services, so these will not change.

“However there are other services that we are looking to change - by seeing if we can run them more efficiently or by increasing income.”